Scottish Labour is being shielded from the PFI fallout

It’s back with a bang and right in the middle of an election campaign. The Private Finance Initiative [PFI] funding mechanism so beloved of the Labour party back in the early 2000s has returned to haunt them.

The closure of seventeen schools in Edinburgh amid concerns for the safety of pupils caught everyone by surprise. The schools were inspected after a wall collapsed at another school back in January but nobody believed the checks were anything other than a formality and the schools were expected to reopen after the Easter break.

But that didn’t happen. Instead more faults were found and Edinburgh council, unable to guarantee the safety of pupils and staff, issued a statement late Friday announcing the indefinite closure of the schools.

The closure affects thousands of pupils and their families. The local authority is now faced with the cost of finding temporary accommodation for pupils, some of whom face critical exams in a matter of weeks. Meanwhile the Scottish Government has urged other local authorities to carry out urgent inspections of their own building stock.

Legacy

The sorry state of affairs is a legacy of the controversial system known as PFI. PFI was a creation of the Conservative government in the early 1990s – but it really took off under Tony Blair’s Labour government.

Under PFI, contractors shouldered the construction costs of schools and hospitals and then rented the finished projects back to the public sector – making exorbitant profits in some cases. Gordon Brown when Chancellor embraced the idea as it enabled him to remove the costs from UK PLC books. The accountancy sleight of hand enabled Brown to acquire a reputation for being prudent.

The Labour party was in power north and south of the border when Brown was punting PFI. At Holyrood Gordon Brown’s devotion to PFI was shared by First Minister Jack [now Lord] McConnell. PFI was railroaded through civic Scotland. Brown and McConnell may have long departed elected office, but their legacy remains.

Labour

There’s been no shortage of news reports on the closure of the seventeen Edinburgh schools. It’s been headlined by newspapers, carried on radio bulletins and featured on TV news. But one thing has been missing – the Labour party. There’s been nary a mention of the party that was responsible for introducing and pushing the PFI system that funded the building of the schools.

You’ll be hard pressed to locate any newspaper article, bulletin or report that highlights Scottish Labour’s involvement in the PFI Schools scandal. And it is a scandal. This weekend we learned that pupils and staff have been at risk for years due to structural faults in the buildings.

Every day children attending primary schools walked beneath walls now known to be unstable and at risk of collapse. That nobody was injured when a brick wall at Oxgangs Primary School partially collapsed is down to sheer good fortune.

The £360m contract to build and maintain the Edinburgh schools was won by the Edinburgh Schools Partnership back in 2001. Glasgow council soon followed, awarding a £1.2bn contract to private company 3ED.

Jack McConnell

In 2002 Jack McConnell said: “Public Private Partnerships are innovative. They are delivering new hospitals, new schools and better transport links.”

However, concerns over the quality of building work were already being raised with the EIS being particularly vocal. In August 2001, EIS General secretary Ronnie Smith, said: “There have been serious concerns about the state of readiness of some of the schools and the local authority has a legal responsibility to make sure it provides a safe working environment for teachers and pupils.”

When some opposition-led local authorities voiced their own concern about the funding model being promoted by McConnell’s administration, the Labour First Minister responded by threatening to block funding for these councils. Scottish Labour was, in effect, coercing local authorities into using PFI in order to build schools.

The SNP objected. Speaking at the time, Clackmannanshire council leader Keith Brown [Now Scottish Government Transport Secretary] said:

“It is absolutely outrageous that Mr McConnell is holding back money from councils who want to run schools on a not for profit basis.

“The Private Finance Initiative means money is removed from public services and stuffed into the pockets of private financiers. It rips off the tax-payer and hands control of schools and other services to private corporations

“Every school that the Scottish Executive plans to build could be built by a not for profit trust – but crucially the money that is creamed off in excess private profit will instead by re-invested in children’s education.”

In 2004 more concerns over the quality of building work were raised by teachers. The concerns emerged after a national survey of new-build/refurbished schools was carried out by the Educational Institute of Scotland in conjunction with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

Concerns over the quality of construction were repeatedly raised. In 2006 the trade union Unison published a briefing paper containing examples of the criticisms leveled at PFI.

A survey by Scottish Construction News (SCN) branded the Scottish Executive’s £2.3b schools replacement programme a waste of taxpayers’ money. SCN editor Jonathan Brown said: “There is a lot of anger in the industry and a real feeling too that PPP is a rip-off with big future costs to the public purse in the pipeline.”

Glasgow architect Alan Dunlop complained that PPP schools are too often badly designed and “little more than a roof”. He said: “In 20 years’ time these buildings are likely to become as bad as the schools they replaced because the materials are not good enough and the design is poor.”

The government’s architecture watchdog, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), warned that public service delivery is suffering because the vast majority of PFI buildings have not been designed and built to a high enough standard. It also said that 9 out of 10 of the worst designed new schools in England were built using PFI.

Scrapped

PFI was eventually scrapped by the SNP when the party won the Holyrood election in 2007. It was replaced by a Non-Profit Distributing method which funded projects in three main sectors – Further Education, Health and Transport.

But the stench of PFI remains, not least due to the eye-watering annual payments some local authorities have been saddled with. This was highlighted in June last year when SNP MSP Jim Eadie raised the issue in the Holyrood chamber.

The news that schools built under the last Labour led administration, and which are still being paid for, have been structurally unsafe for ten years should have all but ended Kezia Dugdale’s election campaign. The Scottish Labour leader herself is on record boasting about her party’s PFI achievements whilst rubbishing the SNP’s replacement model administered by the Scottish Futures Trust.

Scottish Media

But just as when Dugdale found herself in need of assistance when she U-turned on an unworkable tax rebate, the Scottish media has rushed to her aid again. Newspapers and broadcasters have bent over backwards to ensure Scottish Labour isn’t implicated in the school closure scandal. The words PFI and Labour have scarcely appeared in the same sentence.

The story was briefly mentioned on Radio Scotland on Saturday when it the subject of a short newspaper review. Presenter Bill Whiteford appeared to panic at the mere mention of PFI. “We have to be careful during this election campaign in terms of raising that as a political issue” said the BBC man.

Why had BBC Scotland to be careful raising a verifiable and well documented fact during an election campaign because it might become a political issue? I don’t recall the same caution when the broadcaster promoted a politically motivated smear campaign over the course of several days after the First Minister signed a memorandum with two Chinese companies.

The broadcaster has singularly failed to highlight Labour’s historic role in the PFI legacy, despite it being very highly relevant. Unlike the forensic examination of the SNP’s governance when a crack was found in the Forth Road Bridge, there’s been no similar pursuit of Scottish Labour over the PFI scandal.

Forth Road Bridge

Cast your mind back to December last year and a crack in a truss on the Forth Road Bridge made the news. The day the story broke BBC Scotland allocated it no fewer than four reporters, including political reporters. The item on that night’s Reporting Scotland lasted twelve minutes.

Over the course of the next few days the story saturated not just BBC Scotland output but all Scottish media output. Within days, smears and accusations were being levelled. Opposition politicians accused the SNP of negligence and of cutting maintenance budgets.

When engineer John Carson issued statements critical of the maintenance regime, he was rewarded with a spot on Reporting Scotland. Carson’s claims set the news agenda for days.

It resulted in accusations being leveled at Transport Minister Derek Mackay that he had misled parliament.

I’ve embedded four separate audio clips which give an idea of the tone of coverage BBC Scotland was pushing. Below you’ll hear interviews, discussions, newspaper reviews and a smear perpetrated by the Mail on Sunday.

The PFI scandal is a far more serious situation than the Forth Road Bridge Crack. The bridge resulted in nothing more than inconvenience to the public, whereas the PFI situation put children in danger for years.

Unlike the bridge story which was built on politically motivated innuendo, there’s no dubiety over who was responsible for the PFI contracts that built the schools. This is a problem that can be placed squarely at the feet of the Labour party.

The schools were built ten years ago. Some might question whether our media should be looking back years in order to look for blame. Well once again we can look to the Forth Road Bridge story to see BBC Scotland did just that.

Below is a clip from Reporting Scotland which shows the broadcaster looking back six years in order to present ‘evidence’ it felt relevant to the story. The evidence of course supported the anti-SNP narrative that was prevalent across the whole of the media.

Of course it isn’t just BBC Scotland which has shown a reluctance to draw attention to Scottish Labour over the PFI scandal, the entire Scottish media has failed in this regard, even STV. The difference of course is that we are forced to pay BBC Scotland to present political news, and in return we are promised balanced and non-partisan coverage. The difference in coverage between the PFI story and the Forth Road Bridge closure is obvious.

The PFI schools scandal will run. It’s just too big a story to ignore. I’m confident though that Scottish Labour will be able to ride out this storm without any of its politicians, past or present, facing questions over this scandal. You won’t find Jack McConnell being grilled by Gary Robertson or confronted by Glenn Campbell.

SNP Bad

Newspapers are already trying to turn what should be a disaster for Scottish Labour into an attack on the SNP. It’s led to some newspapers publishing laughable headlines that do little to enhance their already diminishing reputations.

The headlines were based on calls from the Scottish Conservatives for the Scottish Government to review the remit of Education Scotland to “include the condition of school buildings”. Just how education inspectors were to suddenly acquire construction skills and training wasn’t fully explained.

The story was picked up by the Scottish Daily Mail and the newspaper’s headline was rather fortuitously first to be read out that very morning on Good Morning Scotland.

Jack McConnell was happy to appear on BBC Scotland recently where he took the plaudits for introducing the smoking ban. If he can be invited on to accept credit, then surely he can be invited on to accept responsibility for the scandal of PFI.

22 thoughts on “Scottish Labour is being shielded from the PFI fallout”

The SNP should immediately call for a full Public inquiry , Someone must be running the Country even in this Purdah period , The Inquiry must be a judicial one with the threat of criminal charges if wrong doing is found , Lets see jack with his ermine clad pal Reid and the slimy lib/dems who were willing accomplices to this fiasco sweat a little .

We are in the middle of a propaganda war,BBC,media,and unionist party’s will at all times,play down any criticism of w/m party’s.
The focus will be,to destroy anything that shows snp in a good light.
To keep pressure on what they see as a separatist movement.A threat to the ultimate power of w/m parliament.
Keep up the good work in exposing this biased reporting.The BBC was once considered to be a impartial body,but,what they call a unitary state is threatened.The BBC,msm are propaganda tools.

Two thoughts here. Were building control inspections compromised in some way and therefore not rigorous enough?
And the interim report on the tragic death of a schoolgirl at Liberton High suggests no one is to blame for the wall collapsing. That is outrageous as walls that collapse must have a flaw, either in design or construction or specification of materials. Someone must be prosecuted.

I have been wondering the very same thing. If you build a house you are dogged every step of the way by building inspectors – some who know their stuff and others who are completely clueless. However, inspections are made and you cannot proceed until they are satisfied. Your house is not signed off until all checks have been completed. What happened with these buildings where it is of utmost importance that public safety is ensured? Were backhanders in play? A full enquiry at the earliest is absolutely necessary.

Building Control officers are not ‘inspectors’ during the build process. They will inspect the building to ensure it meets regulations at the end to give a completion certificate for occupation but this will not pick up omissions that have been covered up months before. It is not their role and they bear no responsibility.

Neither do the architects or engineers bear any responsibility. Under this procurement method they will have no professional role for inspection and certification during the build. Even if they did you can only inspect what you see on site when you visit. It is extremely easy for a contractor to cover up mistakes and shortcuts.

These were effectively ‘design and build’ contracts where the contractor supervised and certified the build. Therefore they (and the consortium which they are part of) are wholly responsible.

This situation can arise when the main contractor knows that the cheaper they build the more money they can make and they know they can get away with it. So to win a job they might under price. To make more profit they viciously drive down costs of sub-contractors (by promising future work). How does a sub-contractor make any money when they are doing the price far too cheaply? Well they cut corners like missing out wall ties knowing there is no architect or clerk of works appointed to inspect their work. Wall ties cost peanuts but they will take time to fit. So a wee corner cut, no-one there to notice, and the sub-contractor comes out financially alive.

Of course, this can only happen because of the procurement method and contract set up under PFI. So it goes back to Gordon Brown and Labour.
.

Very well written as usual, G.A. The problem is of course, perennial, as the M.S.M are merely an extension of the Westminster establishment, and will do their bidding, in this case protecting the Labour Party in Scotland.
It’s a national disgrace that any number of people could have been killed, or seriously injured by the sub-standard construction of these buildings, but I’m so cynical of the media nowadays that even if a public enquiry is held, the complicity of the Labour Party in this scandal will be airbrushed from the report, at least by the M.S.M.
All this latest fiasco proves is that our greatest obstacle to independence is the media, as without their support, the unionist parties would have disappeared down the plughole long ago.

It’s little wonder Gordon Brown beat such a hasty path north to voice his concerns during independence campaigning. History has shown leaders of crumbling tyrannies desperately attempting to cover-up years of corruption and shady dealings before the curtain is brought-down on their regime.

Many questions have yet to be answered re PFI; just what monumental can-of-worms would be exposed within an SNP-led independent Scotland? How high up the chain of command do PFI dealings reach? Which former – and current – public servants are involved? What connections do they have with Scottish media? Why do so many ex-Labour names continue to crop-up in dubious historical documents and news items?

The obfuscation of facts in present day Scotland, the daily news cover-ups and hushing of evidence, is akin to a frantic shredding of documentation, of setting fire to reams of paperwork, of destroying paper-trails. What’s going-on?

At a time when Scottish children are being denied basic education from school closures, and have scandalously lived under the threat of building-collapse, not a peep from Lord McConnell, not a conspicuous word; such a low-profile from a former First Minister of Scotland? Some, like Gordon Brown, come-across as arrogant and cock-sure, however there’ll be others who are distinctly uncomfortable in the present culture of transparency sweeping Scotland. Skeletons begin to rattle in cupboards.

Every pupil, parent and local council that has been affected by this fiasco should be compensated for the costs of time, childminding and loss of education. No further contractual payments should be made until all compensation has been paid. The administrative costs incurred by central and local government should be recovered in full.

The inclusion of the blatant Labour biased piece of propaganda on the main BBC news on Monday should leave us in no doubt about where the BBC stands re Scottish politics. Thankfully over 50% of the Scottish population now know where to look for more information on all the issues affecting us and some have said the more blatant the bias the more likely support for independence will remain strong. Sadly the coverage will likely lessen the chances of changing the other 50% views if they accept the current unionist perspective as reflecting what is happening but we just need to keep plugging away.

Ps thank you for pointing out the labour connection to IPPR, even though i dismissed the report out of hand it’s good to know my scepticism (?) was justified!

If these buildings were not inspected by qualified people then surely the contractors are bound by penalties if the work proves to be not fit for purpose.
I work as a Quality Manager and I see these efforts being made to cut corners and maximise profits all too often.
I would be asking also how these contractors were qualified as capable to do the work and what due diligence was undertaken.
It smacks of unethical business practices.

This is very interesting reading,i am going to share this on social media to let the voters see what unionist parties have done to the Scottish electorate.
I know who i’m voting for after years of Westminster rule,SNP is the only party that talks about Scotland it doesn’t run it down like all unionists.

Bbc ask a loaded question and if the answer is not what you are looking for, repeat, rejig, repeat ad infinitum.bbc Scotland, uk state propaganda outlet.always will be.do not buy the licence tax! Remember you are paying the same as millionaires. Ditto VAT. Scotland too wee, to poor, to stupid, unlike, Finland, Holland, RoI , Iceland, Belgium, and laughably Luxembourg

I agree. A full judicial inquiry should be launched into this disgraceful scandal, with those responsible being held to account. It is clear who instigated and supported the PFI at government level but I suspect local officials were under pressure to approve the construction even when they found it flawed. Local authorities, now saddled with these exorbitant payments, should only continue to pay them if all the buildings are found to be of sound structure. Otherwise, they should abandon payment subject to essential repairs being carried out.